Aiming for the first J1 victory at home this season

The 1st Stage Sec. 3, which was scheduled for Friday due to the ACL schedule, will be held at home against Vissel Kobe.

In the previous match, we won against Sendai and aim for our second consecutive victory in the league. However, in our recent official matches, we have been conceding the first goal in four consecutive games. Therefore, we want to thoroughly implement risk management in order to prevent conceding goals.　

Tokyo's starting lineup is the same as the Sendai match, with Tanabe on the right side, Hashimoto as the holding midfielder, and Ogawa as the left fullback. Due to a foot injury, Morishige and Yonemoto, who were candidates for the Japan national team training camp, have been forced to withdraw and are working hard to recover and make it into the starting lineup.

The night game will be played in the cold weather of 6.2 degrees without sunlight from day to night. The number of spectators was also the lowest in the J1 league game at Ajinomoto Stadium (12,552 in the 12th round against C Osaka in 2001), but it was even lower at 11,488. However, the players all agreed, "We want to do our best to share the joy with the fans and supporters," and the game started at 7:04 pm with Tokyo's kickoff.

Both teams are playing cautiously, and the game continues with a lot of patience.

Both teams were cautious and solid from the start of the game. When Tokyo advanced into the opponent's territory, they were immediately put under intense pressure by Kobe, resulting in an increase in fouls being committed.

2 minutes: Maeda receives a foul from a FK in front of the area slightly to the right, and Morishige aims.
11 minutes: A FK was obtained on the right side. Ogawa's kick was blocked by the GK's punching, but Abe connected and Mori Shige shot again. 12 minutes: Kobe cleared the ball sent to the front of the goal from a throw-in. Hashimoto, who followed Yonemoto in the left area, turned his body and took a shot.

17 minutes: This time, Abe receives a foul and takes a free kick from the right area. The opponent's clearance goes to the left area, where Abe takes a volley shot.
22 minutes: Abe from the left area controlled the ball with his chest and took a shot with his left foot. However, both shots missed the goal.
30 minutes: From a quick pass exchange on the right side, Abe picked up the ball and passed it to Maeda who broke through on the right side and crossed it in front of the goal. However, it narrowly missed East who was running towards the center.

Unable to take advantage of chances, Kobe held onto the ball in the end. In response, Tokyo remained calm and maintained a compact formation. They continued to repel Kobe's long balls and did not allow any dangerous scenes to be created.

36 minutes: From Tokyo's CK, Kobe received a counterattack and a pass from Kobe's left side back, Soma → FW Leandro in the center, but the middle shot was aimed at FW Watanabe, but it missed to the left and ended the first half with a scoreless draw.

Abbe scores his first goal in the league just before the end of the game, grasping the rhythm after joining the team!

Tokyo changed positions from the second half, with Higashi as FW and Abe moving to the left side to aim for a goal. This proved successful, as they began creating chances from the left side.

47 minutes: Attacking from the left side, the ball spilled out from the chaos in front of the goal and Yonemoto reacted. He attempted a sliding shot from just outside the left area, but it was blocked.
53 minutes: Created a scoring opportunity. Quickly connected from their own half, Abe on the left side faked out the opposing defender and made a short pass to Tanabe who made a perfect header... but the ball just barely hit the top of the bar.

64 minutes: Hashimoto advances to the right front line and earns a corner kick. Maeda from the near side jumps in with a header to meet Ogawa's low kick, but the shot goes wide.
67 minutes: Mizunuma is substituted in for Higashi.
72 minutes: Replaced Tanabe with Sandaza. Increased the pressure towards the goal even more.
76 minutes: Sandaza receives a foul and earns a free kick from the right side of the penalty area. Maruyama takes the shot, but it narrowly misses the right post and is saved by the GK. From the resulting corner kick, Hashimoto falls while taking a shot from the area, but it goes wide to the left.

88 minutes: Pushing up the entire team, Morishige → Tokunaga on the right touchline, overlaps with the previous Mizunuma. From Mizunuma and the one-touch pass from the inside Hashimoto, Tokunaga puts in a ground cross from just outside the right area. The ball passes through Maeda in front and Sandaza in front, but is sent to Abe, who is free in the left area, and he calmly guides it in with his left foot for a goal!!

Abé marks his first goal in the league since transferring to Tokyo by breaking through the right side! This becomes the final point, and in a dramatic fashion, they take 3 points and achieve their second consecutive win in the league.

[Player Comments]
"Abe"
"It was a game of patience. Considering the game content, there are many points that need to be improved. However, the most important thing is to get 3 points. The goal came from a good ball from Tokunaga. It was a form that we had been practicing to get into. As an attacking unit, there is a lot of reflection, and we were able to win the game because the players in the back held on. I want to create more chances and score goals."

"Tokunaga"
"(On the scoring scene) Mizunuma, Hashimoto and I broke through the side, and Abe entered the far side. I saw that, so I sent a cross to the far side. It was just as I intended, but it might have been a difficult ball. He scored well for me. I focus on balancing on the right side and overlapping when it's time to create scoring opportunities even with few attacks. We talked about how Kobe was tight in the first half, but it would open up in the second half and there was a feeling that we could score. We were able to hit that spot well."

[Coach Hiroshi JOFUKU's Press Conference Summary]
"The game was a slow and steady one, with only a total of 3 shots from Kobe. In the second half, we didn't allow them to take any shots. That is something we can take positively. Our foundation lies in solid defense. However, in the past 4 games, we have been conceding the first goal. Today's game was a tense one, but we were able to maintain a solid defense throughout the 90 minutes. As a challenge, we were not able to calm the game down in the first half. In the second half, we showed our attacking prowess, but we want to continue to work on our attacking skills throughout the year. In order to earn points, we believe that we need to have a strong defense like we did today. On a weekday, and in extremely cold weather, we wanted to give the fans and supporters who came to the game a match that they could say "it was worth coming". I think it was good that we were able to ultimately win the game."

[Kobe NELSINHO's coach's press conference summary]
"I think we were able to respond well to the defensive plan of building blocks. However, our attack after taking the ball was not good. We need to improve the quality of our counterattacks, aiming for the space in the opponent's territory quickly. I talked to the players at halftime, but in the second half, our attack was not good enough and we lacked scenes where we supplied the ball to the front line. If we continue to play like this, it will be easier for the opponent to defend. We were robbed of the rhythm of the game."